"Yowl!"
The Striped Mink licked its paw, cleaning its orange fur to perfection as it lay perched over a rock. It stared down with its pure black eyes, making sure its fur was rid of all the grime accumulated on it. "Yowl!" It yawned loudly. The Striped Mink was bored. It felt trapped in this gate, where it had no opportunity to grow stronger, and had to simply laze around, waiting for some unwitting prey to wander.
Yet, whenever some prey walked into this gate, it would simply kill off its minions before running off. Yowl! It put down its paw. It would do the same if it was facing something stronger than it. That was how the beasts ruled over each other. The weak submitted to the strong. And the foolish submitted to the smart. Yet, the prey were annoying. Much more than any beast it had encountered.
As an F-4 rank creature, it was one of the strongest monsters in the gate. There were stronger monsters than it though. The Spiked Eagle or the Red Squirrel might posses that title. Maybe even the recently deceased Rat Lord could have been classified as the strongest monster. Yet, none of them were the boss of this gate.
The Striped Mink had held this position ever since it had dethroned the Rat Lord. And, for now, it would not let go of this place. It was not the strongest creature in this gate. But it was the smartest. It had the largest pack. And it was their alpha. Nobody could stand against its might.
Screech! Suddenly, a small rat lord scurried towards it. Yowl! The striped mink's dark black eyes focused on it as it raised its head threateningly. Screech! The rat lord frantically screeched at the striped mink, as if it had forgotten all traces of fear.
Growl! Suddenly, the striped mink slammed its paw into the floor. Squeak! The rat lord screamed in fear, shivering as it took a shrunk away. The alpha's domineering presence made it cower in fear. The Striped Mink growled. Two weaklings had wandered into its territory. And worse, they had already attacked and killed a sizeable portion of the already depleted rat forces.
"ROAAAAAR!" It threw its head back as it roarer in anger. Screech! The rat lord bowed its head in fear as it turned around, scurrying away. Perhaps the alpha would take care of the intruders on its own. After all, the death of the Rat Lord alpha should be celebrated with blood, right?
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Crunch....crunch...crunch! Ethan walked through the tall grass, his feet crushing the dried leaves beneath his feet as he put his feet forward.
He sighed. Once again, he'd been left alone in a dangerous place with monsters stronger than him, waiting to attack him.
Crunch...crunch. Ethan followed a trail of flattened grass as he moved ahead. Noah had rushed towards some sort of monster, flattening any grass in his way. He'd left an obvious trail that anybody could follow. Well, that made it easier for Ethan to find him. He wasn't complaining.
Crunch...crunch...splat! Suddenly, Ethan's foot landed in something wet. He looked down. "Ugh!" This was oddly reminiscent of the scene that had occurred near the entrance to this dungeon. His foot was coated red with the blood of rats.
Or, a rat lord, to be specific. He pushed aside a couple of blades of grass, revealing the site of a gruesome massacre.
Splat...splat...splat. A trail of blood littered the ground, snaking forward as it lead to a small clearing. A large corpse, about a metre tall and 2 metres long lay sprawled on the ground. It was a rat lord.
Ethan studied the corpse in front of him. This monster had been killed in a single blow. Its head was cut off in a single hit, making its death a bloody yet short spectacle. Noah would have probably given it a slower deatj if he could have. Which meant that he couldn't spare enough time to torture it.
Ethan knelt down near the corpse as he stared into the tall grass in front of him. He could see a trail of flattened grass leading deeper into the gate. He sighed.
He'd have to follow the trail left behind by Noah. Most likely left on purpose for him to follow. He stood up, staring at the path in front of him. Hopefully he wasn't being led into some kind of a trap like the last time. Well, it didn't matter. He'd just have to kill any monsters that came after him.
Crunch...crunch...crunch. The grass grew taller as Ethan followed the trail of destruction deeper into the forest. Beep! Suddenly, his watch turned red.
The stonograph attached showed that the concentration of oppressive mana in the atmosphere had reached high levels. He frowned. What did this mean? Was the gate about to crash?
Generally, the number of monsters in a gate was proportional to the concentration of oppressive mana in the atmosphere. The levels weren't nearly as much as those emitted by the white orb on Hydragyros.
They were small enough that they couldn't be detected by most awakeners. But the minute changes in oppressive mana could be detected by stonographs.
However, the stonograph turning red didn't mean that a gate was about to crash. For one, gates crashed when the number of monsters exceeded a particular limit, not when the concentrations of oppressive mana were high enough.
So, the stonographs turning red didn't mean that the gate was about to crash. After all, the number of monsters must have decreased in the past hour, not increased. And there were other factors that could affect the presence of oppressive mana. Like Contractors.
Crunch....crunch....splat! Suddenly, Ethan's feet landed in another wet puddle. "Ugh!" He lifted his foot in disgust. Blood. Once again, the ground was was strewn with corpse, soaking the floor with blood.
He looked up. A bunch of dead rats lay on the floor. Some were missing their limbs. Others lacked their heads. But what they all had in common was that they had killed by the same person. Noah Evans.
Splat...splat...crunch. Ethan walked away from the site of the massacre. From one genocide to another. Maybe he'd be following Noah for the rest of their gate visit. He didn't exactly enjoy seeing so many dead corpses in one place.
Why had Noah even brought him here anyways? Was it to make him chase him around needlessly? Probably not. Noah rarely did things for no reason. He was as efficient as he was ruthless. Though his brief bouts of bloodlust were an exception to his general calm and cold temperament.
Noah could definitely clear this gate by himself. So, he must have needed Ethan for something else. Maybe it was for a hidden quest or something?
Crash! Suddenly, the ground beneath Ethan gave way. Smash! "Oof" He felt the wind knocked out of him as he fell on his back.
If he wasn't an awakener, then he'd definitely have died. 10 metres wasn't a small height. He glanced upwards. How did he fall down here. Was it Noah?
But Noah was killing monsters right now. He didn't have enough time to dig a hole and fake a trail. He glanced at the rocky edges of the hole.
This hole....it wasn't dug by a human. No, those claw marks. They looked a lot like...Screech!
Suddenly, his eyes shot upwards. A large rat lord peeled at him from the edge, baring its teeth as if it was laughing at him. Clatter! Clank! He pulled out his kusarigama, grabbing it with both of his arms.
Beast type monsters weren't dumb. No, on the contrary, they were one of the smartest monsters. They firmed packs, had an established hierarchy and even cooperated to form traps and ambushed. Just like this one.
Screech! Screech! Screech! Rat lords popped out, peeking into the hole as they stared at Ethan hungrily. Whoosh....whoosh....whoosh. He swung his kusarigama in an arc, preparing to fight.
Tricks and thievery could only get you so far. Ultimately, strength was all that mattered. And all he needed to be was stronger than a bunch of rats.